<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Duelling Business Partners by dijon</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022859">Duelling Business Partners</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dijon/pseuds/dijon'>dijon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arguing, Established Relationship, M/M, fights but it’s fine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:22:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,058</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022859</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dijon/pseuds/dijon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It feels like he’s intruding on something personal. He shouldn’t be watching this. It’s too raw, too real. But it’s like a car accident, he can’t turn his eyes away. Tears are threatening to spill, his heart is in his throat and yet his eyes are glued to the monitor. </p><p>Phil watches himself, sat in this same chair in the gaming room.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dan Howell/Phil Lester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Duelling Business Partners</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It feels like he’s intruding on something personal. He shouldn’t be watching this. It’s too raw, too real. But it’s like a car accident, he can’t turn his eyes away. Tears are threatening to spill, his heart is in his throat and yet his eyes are glued to the monitor. </p><p>Phil watches himself, sat in this same chair in the gaming room. His eyes are bloodshot and trained on the wall behind the camera. Dan slams his hand on the desk and Phil flinches, eyes closing shut and tears fall down his cheek. </p><p>Dan’s eyes are burning holes into the side of his head. It happened more than two hours ago but he can still feel it. </p><p>His stubborn anger refusing to look at Dan. Even still, after, it boils somewhere deep in him. Not sure if he would react differently now. </p><p>On the screen, Dan’s face looks broken. It’s a face he’s seen in front of him over the years, but never on a screen. He looks small, so different than the usual big personality he’s used to editing. </p><p>His own face has barely moved. And then Dan’s chair is being pushed back, eyes trained on Phil, who’s ignoring him. </p><p>Dan takes a giant breath, his body folding in on himself. He looks defeated. </p><p>Phil hits pause. He takes his glasses off and puts them on the desk. </p><p>“Shit,” he mumbles into his palms. </p><p>They don’t fight all that often, but today got out of hand. Tempers were running high and they were trying to make hard decisions regarding staff numbers at IRL. </p><p>Business decisions were usually easy. They were almost always on the same page, maybe a disagreement over merch colours or an edit that went over a line. </p><p>But under too much stress, with where to go next with their careers, whether a hiatus was okay and Dan struggling with planning his coming out, they had been bickering more frequently. </p><p>They shouldn’t have tried to film. It wasn’t like the gaming channel had a schedule anyways. It could have waited. </p><p>But it was a planned filming day. So at 5 p.m. they both found themselves in the gaming room. They hadn’t said a word to each other since their lunch hour blowup. </p><p>Phil loaded up the Sims and they turned on the camera and equipment without a word. </p><p>“Ready?” Dan’s voice was soft and sad sounding. </p><p>It was obvious something was wrong from the second the recording started. </p><p>Phil only hummed in agreement before they both visibly took a deep breath and looked into the camera. </p><p>It’s terrifying the way they switch into their on-camera personas. </p><p>But it’s not the same. They are talking to the game, talking to the audience. But barely acknowledging each other. </p><p>He knows it’s coming. Only 2 minutes in and it all falls apart. </p><p>Dan stops mid sentence. He turns his chair towards Phil. </p><p>“What the fuck are we doing?” </p><p>Phil doesn’t turn his head towards him. Instead he talks to the desk. </p><p>“Dan, lets just film...”</p><p>“No. Phil. This won’t be fucking useable anyways. How can you just pretend it’s all fine? Are you really that fucking cold, you can just put on this fake face?”</p><p>He watches his own Adam’s apple bob as he swallows Dan’s words. </p><p>“What!? The silent treatment! Grow the fuck up and talk to me, Phil!” </p><p>He spins in his chair. </p><p>“Excuse me! Me grow up? Have you heard anything you’ve said today?”</p><p>Their voices have raised so much, Phil has to turn down the volume. </p><p>“Maybe if you and your brother didn’t team up on me when making decisions, we wouldn’t be here!”</p><p>The Phil from the past, throws his hands up in the air and turns his chair back around to face the screen. He watches his eyes get more and more red, forcing tears to stay put. </p><p>“I’m not having the same argument again. We’re all part of this. No me and him versus you or us against him. That’s it.” </p><p>Dan’s jaw clenches hard. </p><p>“You’re right. That is it. Phil says it’s it, so we’re done. Discussion is over and Dan no longer gets input. Great business partnership.” </p><p>Phil doesn’t say a word after that and then Dan storms out of the room. He slams the door on his way out and there’s a few loud, indistinguishable bangs. He can hear ‘fuck’ shouted a few times even now through his headphones. </p><p>He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and the tears finally fall down his face. Staring at his own sad face on the screen, he feels like no time has passed and he’s just been sitting in this chair for hours. </p><p>He’s frustrated at himself. At them for letting things boil up to that point. They talk, they work things out and never let them fester. </p><p>Screen Phil breaks then. A quiet sob, he drops his head into his hands. It’s all overwhelm. It would have been solved if they took a break and then talked. They wouldn’t have got here. </p><p>He closes out of the window, doesn’t need to see the rest of his tears. </p><p>Wiping the tears from his eyes, he pulls his headphones off and stands up from the desk. </p><p>Dan makes him jump. He’s leaning against the doorframe, hands in his pockets. </p><p>“Sorry,” his voice is shaky. </p><p>Phil takes a couple of steps towards him and notices how wet his eyes are. Red and swollen, matching his own. </p><p>“You watched it?” </p><p>Phil nods his head. </p><p>“I don’t know why. Look, babe..”</p><p>Dan cuts him off. </p><p>“No. Wait. Can I talk, please?” </p><p>He nods again. </p><p>“I didn’t mean any of that,” he points towards the screen. “I just didn’t feel heard and flew off the handle. I’m so fucking stressed. I know it’s not an excuse but I think I’m at my limit. I think I need a break.”</p><p>Phil closes the gap between them a few more steps. </p><p>“Then we take a break. And we talk instead of exploding. I’m sorry for shutting down.” </p><p>It’s Dan who closes the space between them and runs his thumb under Phil’s eyes, wiping the fresh tears. </p><p>“No filming today.” </p><p>Phil nods. “No filming this week. A mini break.” </p><p>Dan kisses Phil’s forehead. </p><p>“So popcorn and a movie in bed?” </p><p>“Yah, lets do it.”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>